Well, she’s more than just a lovely person, she’s got a voice to match. And she’s got the good sense to signed up to Tru-Thoughts and work with the jazz giants Riaan Vosloo and Benedic Lamdin, they of the incredible Nostalgia 77 Sessions with Keith and Julie Tippett that came out last month, see review HERE), so ‘prolific’ is their middle names and in addition to the album Raise The Roof, this is a bonus edition if you like.

And if you’ve got Shapes 09:01 you’ll know what a great mix that have done on ‘Raise The Roof’. Sadly, that’s not included on This And That as this album concentrates on Ms. Parks in an acoustic setting; of the 9 tracks, five are acoustic versions. And if you know either of those versions of ‘Raise The Roof’, this downtempo string quartet assisted version is the killer defining version (yep, it’s that good!)

And the tone is set by the opener ‘This And That’ that’s not much more than Lizzy and the piano of Riaan Vosloo and ‘Soul Bird’ is a Lizzy only version.

The acoustic ‘Forever And A Day’ is so stripped as it showcases Lizzy’s vocals with acoustic guitar (Max Gilkes) and a glorious flute solo, it makes you want to live, “forever and a day”. Jazzy mixtape material par excellance. And then ‘Time’ and ‘Eyes Of A Child’ reminds me of some of Deborah Jordan’s recent material; GP should have played both these tracks on his ‘Strings, Things and Cinematic Voices’ last week; or if you’re the other side of pond, think Mia Doi Todd with strings - stunning!

There’s two cover versions on the album, ‘A Taste Of Honey’ (as in the 60s film) and showing off her love of jazz (in case you were in any doubt), Wayne Shorter’s ‘Deluge’. Oh yes! Both tracks are so late nite soul-jazz with percussion from Will Fry, Mark Hanslip on sax, Riaan on bass with the added bonus of a string section on ‘A Taste Of Honey’.

The deluge is starting for Lizzy Parks and if you don’t know already, you need the albums by Malatu/Heliocentrics, Stonephace, Nostalgia 77 Sessions, Emanative, Get The Blessing and now, the sublime mellow out of This And That.

If you don’t get this album, I’ll raise the roof - Parks brings us cosmic psychedelic-soul-jazz love from Devon via Birmingham, Brighton and London.

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Deluge’, ‘Soul Bird’, ‘This And That’, ‘A Taste Of Honey’

Reviewed: Lizzy Parks - This And That (Tru-Thoughts) Cat. No. TRUCD188 Release date: 22nd June 2009
Tracklisting:
1. This And That (3:40)
2. Forever And A Day (Acoustic Version) (3:17)
3. Deluge (4:44)
4. Soul Bird (Acoustic Version) (3:10)
5. A Taste Of Honey (3:44)
6. Time (Acoustic Version) (4:19)
7. Eyes Of A Child (3:36)
8. Raise The Roof (Acoustic Version) (5:12)
9. Leaving Home (Acoustic Version) (3:06)

Links:
lizzyparks.co.uk
myspace.com/lizzyparksmusic
tru-thoughts.co.uk/artists/lizzy-parks
www.tru-thoughts.co.uk
Gilles Peterson :: 11.06.09 :: Strings, Things and Cinematic Voices
A Taste of Honey (1961) @ www.imdb.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Honey_(song)